Koch brothers mania arrives at the Capitol

Kochmania came to the Capitol this week, as House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) screened clips in the Capitol Visitor Center of a new film by liberal documentarian Robert Greenwald, “Koch Brothers Exposed.”

The film, the screening of which Republicans claimed violated congressional regulations, purported to expose the “Kochtopus” of the conservative industrialists’ political spending. But while it’s easy enough to complain about the brothers’ political spending, it’s quite another thing to do something about the source of the Kochtopus’s contributions: the business empire that generated the Koch brothers’ fortune of $100 billion.

To test the depths of Americans’ Koch dependency, I went to the screening with a shopping bag full of Koch products. I offered them as free samples after the screening of “Koch Brothers Exposed.” Even after hearing all of Greenwald’s allegations about the Koch brothers’ evils, the attendees made off with every last roll of Angel Soft and Brawny, and even took the Lycra pantyhose and the Dixie cups.

Even those who lament what the Kochs do with their money are contributors to the brothers’ fortune.